Creativity Burst: Fluff Your Pillows

Woman fluffs the pillows

Creativity via fluffing your pillows? Say, what?

Here’s the thing about pillows.. Have you ever gotten out of bed, made your bed, thrown your pillows on the bed, and noticed how they sag and collapse, especially after sleeping on them for a few days in a row? Nothing like a sad sack pillow.

Here is an easy, fun tip to begin your day that may make it burst with some creative energy: fluff your pillows.

That’s right – just grab your pillows and “fluff them up.” Not only will you notice a lift in your pillows, but perhaps your mood too? You can punch them up, you can gently fold them up, you can throw them on the bed a few times — whatever you do — as your pillows fill up, your energy may move into a higher gear than you were starting out at in the wee hours of the morning.

I wonder if the simple act of fluffing a pillow will “fluff” your days in other ways? Perhaps you will be inspired to elevate how you see a stranger and pay the person a compliment. Perhaps you try a new dish for dinner to elevate your weekday meal? Perhaps you realize your pillows are past fluffing and decide to buy some new ones for comfort. The mere act of fluffing something may inspire you to fluff your life in some way.

If you want a list of ways to revive your old pillows, find it here. Revitalizing something flat like a pillow can also revitalize a part of you on any given day. It costs nothing, takes a few moments, and not only will your bed look better, but you may as well.

In this way, a fluff here could lead to a burst of creativity elsewhere. Fluff away!

Creativity Burst: Cloudscapes

Look Up! What do you see?

I had the chance a few weeks ago to look up at the sky for a little chunk of time. The sky looked a lot like the picture in this post. Bright blue sky with puffy, large cotton balls floating by me. I love to sit and look at these types of clouds. A few moments in, I will let my mind go hazy — sort of on, but not completely — and then see what I can see.

What do I see? Ah! All sorts of shapes that look like images of animals, cartoon characters, or any other thing that sort of floats up into my mind. I am amazed at how many faces I find — and mostly happy, although I sometimes run into a frown or two. I think what we see in clouds often reflects how we are feeling.

Taking in cloudscapes and playing an imagery game with yourself is one way to access how you are feeling. It also allows one’s mind to turn off the logical, always on, processing mind and move toward the artistic, creative, imaginative side of the mind.

What if you don’t see anything at all? Perhaps your mind is still too turned on? Letting your mind go soft and hazy seems to be an essential element to finding what may at first appear hidden. Oh my, once you start seeing images, get ready! Every cloud that wanders by is going to show you something new.

Looking up at the clouds often fuels my creative side. I can let my mind wander and become inspired by what nature is serving up to me and I can do it for as little or as long a time as I am interested. It costs nothing and can really put you in touch with a part of yourself that is often silenced as we act and think out of our fast-paced, logical mind.

My suggestion? Look up, let your mind go hazy, and see what creative shapes, images, and more you find today.

Creativity Burst: Magazines

Tuesdays I plan on dedicating to creativity!

When you think of creativity, what comes to mind? Do you envision a writer humped over her desk hard at work in her fictional world? Perhaps you see an actor on stage learning lines and bringing a character to life. My mind sees a person in front of a great big canvass ready to paint bold images on their page. Alll of these life paths strike me as one of being a “creative.”

Being a creative doesn’t necessarily imply you have had a creative burst of anything. Rather these paths are crafted by diligently chipping away as we all must do in whatever path we are on today.

As such, finding creative muses on a daily basis seems to be a good place to start. A burst of creativity can plant a new idea in your mind, put a spring into your step, inspire you to be present in your life in ways that are new and fresh, and generally open you up on any given day to any and all available possibilities.

I seek out creative moments just for this purpose in my day-to-day life. It’s not always easy, but there are ways that seem easy and assessible for all of us.

One of these “easy” ways I have found is perusing and reading new magazines that I am not familiar with – such as Cereal. First, this magazine is not from the USA, but from the UK. Immediately my mind is transported to another land and a magazine that focuses on art, style, and travel from this perspective. All of a sudden I am reading interviews of artists and designers I have never even heard of, traveling via pictures to far flung places, and taking in art all within an easy amount of time.

What’s that that happens? A new idea pops in my head and I am off back to my keyboard with something new to say. Perhaps it will be creative, perhaps not, But the burst of creativity has given me renewed energy for my day.